6 Questions You MUST Ask When Finding a BJJ Academy!

[@KodiakCombat]

Competiton backgound itself is irrelevant. Attitude towards competition is. Does the academy value and encourage competing? Will they show up to support and encourage teammates to support as well. Still debating that a "comp team" is necessary to have students do well in competition.

[@ElbowsTight]

The way I look at coaches and competitive history is like Olympic Coaches. Not all Olympic coaches are former Olympians. I think it is is a bonus of a coach has experience in your sport but definitely not a requirement.

[@KodiakCombat]

@ElbowsTight a fair tie breaker for sure. Two matching coaches and one is an Olympian. I'm choosing the Olympian.

[@ElbowsTight]

@@KodiakCombat 100% haha

[@PandasRViolent]

If there is a small number of upper belts and an overwhelming number of white belts in the advanced class on a regular basis this is a problem. Instructor shouldn't have a problem keeping students

[@MidnightAssass1n]

Not necessarily, sometimes the gym just hasn’t been open all that long. The first place I trained I was there at the opening of the place, training under a 3 time world champ black belt and most of us. All white belts for the first 2 years had been there since day one

[@PandasRViolent]

@@MidnightAssass1n That makes sense for a newer gym, The gym I started out at had been open for 7 probably closer to 10 years at the time, If I recall correctly.

[@ElbowsTight]

This is exactly how my academy is. We have been open for maybe five years, and 90% of our academy started day one as white belts, so we haven't had the opportunity to produce our own homegrown brown and black belts.